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Local welfare support for Suffolk residents

There are several schemes available to both tenants and home-owners to help those on low incomes manage this winter. We’ve listed some below and if you need help applying please contact us.

Warm Homes, Healthy People is an initiative run by Suffolk County Council which provides advice on energy use in your home and can help to make your home more energy-efficient. They can lend heaters if your boiler breaks down, and help access renovation grants, or grants for insulation and draught-proofing.

A household needs to have a total income of less than £30,000 to be eligible for a grant. In particular the fund helps those whose houses have a poor energy rating (D-G). For details of help available you can ring 03456 047 686. Or visit https://www.warmhomessuffolk.org/

The government’s Household Support Fund is being distributed by the County Council’s Local Welfare Assistance Scheme. Full information is available online, with at https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/community-and-safety/communities/healthier/suffolk-local-welfare-assistance-scheme. You can see if you are eligible and which documents you need to upload to provide evidence of this. The scheme gives direct grants of £150 per household. If you don’t have internet access, you can phone 0345 606 6067 (Suffolk County Council customer services) to ask for help.

Winter Warmth Packs
This Suffolk scheme can provide a pack of items to help households keep warm, up to £65 worth of items per household. Applicants can choose between a range of items such as hats and gloves, children’s coats, electric blanket, door and window seals, loft hatch cover, and more.
Applications have to be made through a referral from Citizens Advice or another similar agency.

For those who need expert help applying to any or all of the above schemes, don’t forget that Citizens Advice is free and confidential. Contact your local branch on 0808 2787868 or complete the form on the website https://suffolkwestcab.org.uk/contact-us/ and someone will ring you.

Surviving Winter has been running for several years and is funded by people donating their Winter Fuel Allowance to a pool, to help those in fuel poverty. Last year Suffolk Community Foundation raised over £350,000 to distribute, and this year the scheme has opened again this year.

The scheme is administered by Citizens Advice in Ipswich, and gives grants to low-income households, principally this year those who are not in receipt of the government’s Cost of Living payment. This year’s rule is that pensioners and those on means-tested benefits are not eligible. Surviving Winter are restricting the number of claimants this year due to resource limitations. Grants are given to help with heating costs, paid directly to a bank account.

To apply, you can ring the Surviving Winter Helpline on 01473 298634. Or visit https://www.citizensadviceipswich.org.uk/surviving-winter/

If you wish to donate to the Surviving Winter fund, please ring 01473 602602 or visit https://www.justgiving.com/suffolkfoundation

Cumulative Impact Policy (Licensing)

The Council’s Cumulative Impact Policy for Licensing Applications

West Suffolk Council has been reviewing its Licensing Policy document and  consulted the public recently as to whether the area affected by the Policy should be amended.

Unfortunately the Cumulative Assessment Area policy has not been renewed. Thank you to the residents who managed to complete the CIA survey. The CAA recognises that, because of the survey design, some residents were unable to take part. We submitted a response in support of the CIP on behalf of our 357 members and it seems it was counted as one response. The relevant information from West Suffolk Council is below.

Cumulative Impact Assessment areas
(Statement from West Suffolk Council)
This licensing policy only applied to Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket town centres. A CIA policy is appropriate where a high density of licensed premises or a pattern of extended opening hours is having a detrimental effect on the local community.  In these situations, a CIA policy could be used to help to restrict the number of new licensed premises or the extension of licensing hours in a specified area. This means if anyone wished to either extend the licensing hours of an existing business or open a new licensed business such as a pub, restaurant or an off-licence, the CIA is one of the ways in which they could be challenged as to the measures they would put in place to ensure their customers didn’t add to existing problems of crime, disorder, health issues or anti-social behaviour in the area.

It is important to emphasise that due to changes in the law, CIAs can only be renewed if there’s evidence that they are still required. However, the absence of a CIA does not prevent any responsible authority, or other person making representations on a new application or variation of a licence on the grounds that the premises will give rise to a detrimental cumulative impact.

We recognise that for any residents living in or nearby to Bury St Edmunds or Newmarket town centre, this is likely to be an emotive issue. We received nine responses from the public consultation. All the matters raised related to Bury St Edmunds. While it is apparent, that there are some problems of noise, disturbance and criminal damage connected with a small number of specific premises in Bury St Edmunds, this is not sufficient evidence to justify retaining a CIA policy because it is not directly connected to the volume of licensed premises and instead relates to the management of individual premises.

Moving forwards, we want to work alongside our partners, to tackle the issues that have been raised around specific premises using a range of approaches and we would like you to report these to us so we can look to undertake enforcement action as appropriate.

The best way to report these issues relating to licensed premises is to email licensing@westsuffolk.gov.uk or report to us online at https://westsuffolk-self.achieveservice.com/service/West_Suffolk_Council_enquiry_form or phone our customer services team on 01284 763233.

We will, however, keep matters under review – should evidence present itself at a later date to suggest a CIA is required, we can re-consult and reintroduce it. In the meantime, we will look to address issues reported to us through appropriate enforcement as well as use of the town centre PSPOs to directly address issues of anti-social behaviour.

Cllr Donna Higgins, Cabinet Member for Families and Communities
Cllr Ian Shipp, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture
Cllr Gerald Kelly, Cabinet Member for Governance, Regulatory and Environment

 

Air quality and electric chargers

Four members of our committee, including our chairman Vivien Gainsborough Foot, attended a meeting with Suffolk County Council councillors and senior officers at West Suffolk House on 2nd March to discuss electric vehicle charging and air quality issues in the Historic Grid.

You can see the presentation about the case for EV chargers here: Electric vehicles presentation
and the air quality report: Air Pollution in the CAA area

It appears that there will be no council support for EV chargers in our area. Most of the government funding is being directed at rural parts of the district. The air pollution information will be taken into account in future decisions, e.g. about pedestrianisation and enforcement of speed limits.

Electric vehicle survey

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING SURVEY REPORT – March 2022

The government are committed to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 and are encouraging car owners to switch to electric vehicles (EV). They are providing local authorities with funding to install EV infrastructure via the On-Street Residential ChargePoint Scheme and on 25thMarch 2022 announced Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot funding. This funding is for a charging infrastructure project that ‘supports the transition to EV use in a local area, with a particular focus on provision for those without off-street parking.’

Currently there are no plans for on-street chargers in the Grid and the CAA committee are aware that many residents do not have properties which are suitable for EV home charging. It is not permitted to run wires across the pavement, so many residents would depend on the availability of on-street chargers if they wished to own an EV in the foreseeable future. We organised an email survey of our members in January 2022 to help assess the potential demand for on-street chargers in the Grid. We asked the following questions:

  1. Do you own an electric car or intend to get one by 2030?
  2. Is your home suitable for installation of an electric charger?
  3. Would the provision of on-street chargers influence your decision to buy an electric vehicle?

The results and comments from residents can be found here: EVchargingComments2022

 

Private: New litter bins

We are grateful to our local Councillors, Jo Rayner and Andrew Speed, who have used part of their locality budgets to pay for new litter bins at the top of Churchgate Street and in Whiting Street by the College Lane junction. These bins replace some smaller ones which were in need of replacement.

litter bin 1 litter bin

Private: CAA parking survey

The CAA distributed a detailed questionnaire on parking issues to every house and business in the area recently. Committee members worked hard to knock on doors and collect completed questionnaires, resulting in a 35% response, which is much higher than the expected level of response on similar surveys. The Committee has completed a summary report which has been sent to Suffolk County Council. The Council has now commenced a review of the Zone D residents parking scheme. You can read and download the CAA report here: Parking Survey report 2015.

Private: Vision 2031 consultation – full response

CAA Response to Vision 2031 : Submission

Details follow on the detailed response that the CAA has made to the Vision 2031 plan for  30% increase in the size of Bury St Edmunds. All CAA members are being invited by email or direct letter through the door to support this submission.

Summary

The CAA has carried out a study “Reducing Car Usage in the Historic Town Centre”. St Edmundsbury Borough Council is urged to study the CAA recommendations  and implement a comprehensive plan that will ensure that the town centre and mediaeval grid will not be adversely affected by the expansion of the town and will continually remain attractive areas in which to live, work, shop and relax.

Detailed Submission to CAA Study

Bury St. Edmunds Vision 2013: Reducing Car Usage in the Historic Town Centre

The Churchgate Area Association (CAA) has maintained a dialogue with Councillors and Planning Officers of St Edmundsbury Borough Council during the preparation of the Vision 2031 proposals and the preparation of the Local Plan submission documents.  It has in particular informed the Borough Council of the preparation of its own report on “Bury St. Edmunds Vision 2013: Reducing Car Usage in the Historic Town Centre” (CAA, July 2013). It now presents a copy of the report for consideration in the Public Examination of the Local Plan submission documents.

CAA contends that the St Edmundsbury Local Plan submission documents are unsound because they have not been positively prepared and are not effective (as defined above).  The absence of a full area wide transport study and infrastructure delivery plan means that the traffic and parking implications of the five proposed urban extensions for the town centre have not been incorporated.  Without specific plans to deal with these issues, it is not clear that objectively assessed infrastructure requirements have been fully assessed and can be met, nor has it been demonstrated that the plan is deliverable over its lifetime (see Consultation Guidance Notes).

CAA welcomes the proposal to prepare an area wide transport study and further development of the present generalised infrastructure delivery plans.  It also welcomes the intentions for Town Centre Streets and for the Town Centre and the proposed preparation of a Town Centre Masterplan.  But these studies and proposed plans will not be available in time for the soundness of the Local Plan submission documents to be tested at the Local Examination or for local people to have confidence that the strategic development proposals in Vision 2031 can be delivered over time without adverse impact on the vitality of the town centre and the quality and safety of its special heritage environment.

CAA will be pleased to present an outline of its report on “Bury St. Edmunds Vision 2013: Reducing Car Usage in the Historic Town Centre” to the Public Examination and to work with Councillors and Officers of the Borough Council to develop proposals for transport provision in the town and for traffic management and car parking measures in the town centre.  Without this, CAA believes that the core planning principles and particularly the provisions to ensure the vitality of town centres in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) cannot be achieved.

The recommendations in the CAA report have also been formally supported by the EWCA-Eastgate Ward Community Association and SAA –Southgate Area Association

Response references

Representation ID: 20912
Objective 3: To ensure that the necessary infrastructure required to meet the needs of new development is provided at the appropriate time

Representation ID: 20913
Section 7 Travel CAA proposes that paragraph 7.2 should include reference to an area wide transport study and a more specific infrastructure delivery plan to assess the transport implications of proposed major development in the town centre and to ensure the Local Plan is sound.

Representation ID: 20914
CAA proposes that paragraph 15.1 should include reference to prepare plans as part of the Local Plan for reducing car usage in the historic town centre to achieve aspirations 28 and 29 and to ensure the Local Plan is sound.

 

Private: NHS 111 Service

The NHS 111 service has now been rolled out in Bury St Edmunds and across Suffolk.

“NHS 111 is a new service that’s being introduced to make it easier to access local NHS healthcare services. You can call 111 when you need medical help fast but it’s not a 999 emergency. NHS 111 is a fast and easy way to get the right help, whatever the time.”

The EADT reported earlier this year why the 111 service may increase pressure on ambulances:-

‘Tracy Dowling, director of strategic commissioning, explaining that the 111 service will replace NHS Direct, said the service was for members of the public who require an urgent response but do not consider it an emergency. She added: “The call is taken by trained call handlers. They are not clinically qualified but they are trained to use NHS Pathway, which is a nationally accredited tool that takes them through the clinical triage process. NHS Pathway (the call-handling scripts) leads to more patients being categorised as requiring an ambulance, because it is a more risk-averse model in the way that it tends to be used.” ‘